[MyOEBB] OEBB -- Invitation to Schedule 2015 Open Enrollment Meetings!

[MyOEBB system updates]

Dear Superintendents, Business Managers and Benefit Administrators:

OEBB is preparing for the upcoming annual open enrollment period (August 15 through September 15, 2015).  We anticipate there will once again be a lot of interest in hearing more about the OEBB plan offerings during the 2015 Open Enrollment period, especially because this year all employees will be required to re-enroll in medical, dental and vision, or select to opt-out of coverage if they wish their benefit choices to continue beyond September 30, 2015.

Many of you arrange for open enrollment meetings and/or benefit fairs so employees can learn about benefit and plan changes in addition to new plan offerings available at your entity. OEBB staff will be available to provide an overview of program and plan changes for the 2015-16 plan year. Granted there aren't a lot of plan changes taking place this next year, but we have some exciting program changes to talk about - changes to the Healthy Futures program and the addition of a reimbursement program for qualified gym or fitness facility membership fees.  In our continuing efforts educate our members about how to select the health plan that best meets their needs, we will also spend some time previewing the Informed Enrollment Tool that will be available to all employees again this year.  This tool allows members to compare the total estimated cost for each medical plan option the member has to choose from.  It includes both estimated out-of-pocket costs for premiums as well as for projected health care services.  Since every employee will need to re-enroll, the tool should be especially helpful this year.

Also, we anticipate that many employees will have some medical plans available that use a special network and, in return, offer lower premiums than the traditional statewide plans. Carrier representatives will be available to present more details about their new options, if applicable, and can answer most, if not all, questions employees have as they consider their benefit plan choices for the next plan year.

OEBB will continue to offer both venue types - open enrollment meetings and benefit fairs.  However, we feel it is very important that your employees have the opportunity to hear about the plan changes and program additions that will go into effect on October 1, 2015, and the interaction during a benefit fair often doesn't allow for this.  This year we will again ask that all benefit fairs be scheduled to immediately follow an OEBB open enrollment presentation. We anticipate open enrollment information sessions will need to be about 60 minutes for your employees to fully understand the plan offerings and changes for the upcoming plan year and how to begin making their benefit plan selections.

As more individuals become interested in the tax savings Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) can offer, we can also arrange for special meetings to follow the open enrollment session. These meetings will help employees learn more about the HSA-compliant OEBB medical plan offerings (Moda Health Plan H and Kaiser Permanente Plan 3, where available) and the new HSA vendor's (WageWorks') account offering if your entity has chosen to use the OEBB-preferred HSA vendor.  For those entities that use the OEBB-preferred vendor (also WageWorks) for Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), we can arrange for special meetings to talk about the tax advantages of these types of pre-tax accounts as well. If you are interested in scheduling a time for a special HSA and/or FSA meeting, please note that on the meeting request form as well.  (A link to the form can be found at the end of this email.) These special meetings should also be scheduled to immediately follow an open enrollment presentation and could be held in conjunction with a benefit fair.

We will once again schedule open enrollment meetings by region throughout the state and encourage coordination between districts whenever possible. The dates we plan to be in the various areas are listed below.  The regions are divided a little differently than you have seen traditionally, so we identified the ESDs, community colleges, counties and special districts considered to be in each of the areas. If you'd like to schedule your meeting(s) for the week of the Labor Day holiday (the week of September 7), we would greatly appreciate it.  The weeks of August 17 and August 24 have been the most popular in past years and we are often challenged to accommodate everyone's requests.

*         Central Oregon - Weeks of August 17 and August 24 : North Central ESD; Jefferson ESD; High Desert ESD; Harney ESD; Grant ESD; Malheur ESD; Central Oregon CC; Treasure Valley CC

*         Southwest Oregon - Weeks of August 24 and August 31: South Coast ESD; Douglas ESD; Southern Oregon ESD; Rogue CC; Southwestern Oregon CC; Umpqua CC; Josephine County; Coquille Valley Hospital

*         Portland/Metro Area & Willamette Valley - Weeks of August 17,  August 24 and August 31: Willamette ESD; LBL ESD; Lane ESD; Lane CC; Linn-Benton CC; Columbia Gorge ESD; Columbia Gorge CC; Clackamas ESD; Multnomah ESD; Portland CC: Clackamas CC; Mt. Hood CC; Oak Lodge Sanitary District

*         Northeast Oregon & Northwest Oregon - Weeks of August 17 and August 24: Inter-Mountain ESD; Union-Baker ESD; Region 18 ESD; Northwest Regional ESD; Clatsop CC; Oregon Coast CC; Blue Mountain CC; Tillamook CC

*         Southeast Oregon - Weeks of August 24 and August 31: Lake; Southern Oregon ESD; Klamath CC; Klamath County

Our goal is to provide this important information to every employee and early retiree for the 2015-16 plan year. If you would like to schedule OEBB staff and/or carrier representatives for any type of meeting or event during the open enrollment period (August 15 through September 15), please complete the online form by close of business on June 19, 2015 (see link below).  Provide your email address in the space provided on the form and when you click the "Submit" button at the end of the form you will receive an automatic email confirmation containing the information you provided for your records.  We hope to be able to meet the specific dates and times of each request, but we may need to contact you to negotiate a different date or time to allow us to coordinate our journeys throughout the state.  For your convenience, here is a link to the request form:

http://form.jotformpro.com/form/50764744000953

If you have any questions, please let me know.  My email address is denise.hall at oregon.gov<mailto:denise.hall at oregon.gov>, and my direct line is 503-378-5133.  You can also reach me at 1-888-4MyOEBB (1-888-469-6322).  Thank you for your continued support and cooperation as we prepare for a successful 2015 Open Enrollment.

Sincerely,

Denise L. Hall

Denise L. Hall, Deputy Administrator
Oregon Educators Benefit Board
http://egov.oregon.gov/OHA/OEBB<http://egov.oregon.gov/DAS/OEBB>




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